Tis the Night Before Christmas…Ok well maybe not quite night, but you get the general idea. I was still exhausted and feeling particularly lazy yesterday so I didn’t publish the weekend report, but I guess I’ll do so now. I woke up at 5am on Saturday to my cell ringing like a claxon in an air raid. Now why would anyone call me at 5am? Cause my ass was suppose to be awake at 4am and heading over to meet up with Vu and Jorge at Ralphs to go snowboarding at Mountain High. Stupid me, I set my alarm clock to play a CD with no CD! Obviously that didn’t work out too well. Anyway, we finally got under way and started heading up the 15. But then we realized, “Oh Shit! Where are the girls?!” Ok well maybe we didn’t quite forget them but we were unaware we had to go up the 5N to get to Diamond Bar. It turns out later that you can go up the 15N but we didn’t know at the time, oh well. So we made a big U-turn and away we went.

We got to Mountain High around 8:30 and the west lot was already filled, FAWK! So we parked in the east lot and geared up. After a brief wait in the VIP special members only lift ticket line, we hit the slopes. Now I haven’t been snowboarding locally in about four years, but I must admit the conditions were the best of any I can remember. Besides the crowds, which are commonplace to Mountain High, it was actually pretty cool. There were times where the snow starting coming down fairly hard, but nothing that would prevent you from snowboarding. At 1, we broke out the grill and started cooking up some spicy hot dogs, burgers and Vietnamese short ribs (courtesy of Vu’s mom) which were damn good. In fact, we weren’t the only ones who thought so. Every passerby began salivating at the mouth as they passed within 10 feet of our little tailgating party. One group of white boys in particular were scrounging desperately for a change because Alex, being the entrepreneur that he is, informed them we’d sell them a hot dog for a buck. After a few minutes of guilt from Julie however, we just gave it to them. Alex got to look like the nice guy even though it was him that wanted to charge people and Julie who convinced us to donate. Oh well. After a couple more hours, we began the arduous car ride back home. Vu wanted to hit the clubs in downtown but by midnight I was out. Slept for a solid 12 hours and damn it felt good. I spent the rest of the weekend just resting up. Now if only this work day would end, I could start my holiday break! Everyone have a merry Christmas and if I don’t post again before then, a happy and safe New Year. And if you happen to be in SF, look us up cause we’ll be getting crazy in the bay.

:: posted by Z [10:46 AM]
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:: Monday, December 16, 2002 ::

Just Another Manic Monday…As things quickly reach a rapid boil in the pre-xmas mania that grips our consumer driven society each year during the few days remaining before the big day, I ventured out and braved the congested conglomeration of commercialism and humanity that our malls have become in an honest attempt to complete my Christmas shopping early for the first time in… well ever if truth be told. And I’m proud to report that I am only two gifts away from accomplishing this monumental feat, though honestly I probably spent more on myself than on everyone else combined. My sister claims the general rule is “One for them, one for me.” All I can say is it definitely makes gift shopping more enjoyable. Tee hee. Buying stuff for oneself, it’s the gift that keeps on giving.

On Saturday I got the chance to watch Star Trek: Nemesis (yes I’m a big nerd so :P) and wasn’t disappointed. While probably not as good as First Contact, the effects were the best of any Star Trek movie up to date. And while the main villain wasn’t quite up to par with Alice Krige as the Borg Queen, it was still a good movie overall. I would definitely recommend this flick to any sci-fi enthusiast out there. Later that night, I had a small reunion of sorts with my high school friends: just a case of beer, pool and a large amount of crass jokes. The most prevalent probably being the Lady’s Man impressions about “doing it in the butt.” I know Josh Tran especially enjoys those types of jokes. Well anyway, back to work I go.

:: posted by Z [11:39 AM]
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:: Monday, December 09, 2002 ::

A Return of Reports...I said I’d start writing reports again as soon as I regained some semblance of a life. Well lately the sparsity of my posts was more for lack of time than one of material. Work for me is a series of peaks and valleys in terms of workload, and I just happen to find myself stranded at the mountaintop at the moment. I just finished spending about 12 hours fixing a bug that made my program think there was a mountain in the middle of the Cardigan Bay (that’s off the coast of the United Kingdom for those non-geography buffs out there). The solution you ask; the addition of “+6” to a single line. 12 hours! *sigh* Anyway, after such a Herculean effort to move a pebble, so to speak, I thought I’d take a brief respite and update my long neglected website.

I only did one thing of note the entire weekend and that was hit up Club Axiom in downtown San Diego on Saturday night with Vu and his buddies Julie, Jiyon, Alan and Brent. Chester and Tracy met up with us there. I honestly can’t remember the last time we partied in San Diego but I must say I sure did miss it. Not so much the actual club mind you, but simply the convenience of clubbing in our own city, not having to drive 2 hours up and 2 hours back to arrive home sometime before dawn if we were lucky. The club itself was dead at first, but that was to be expected with UCSD going into their finals week. Things picked up towards the end and 7 or 8 drinks later, we were all having a fairly good time. A quick bite to eat afterwards, then back to Vu’s to pick up my car, then to Chester’s for the after party, then home.

Now I could have sworn I left Chester’s around 3, but my roommate insists that I didn’t get home till well after 4. I’m left wondering; what happened to that missing hour? A few possibilities might be I was so drunk and confused I drove around in circles for an hour (this was Vu’s explanation), or maybe I stumbled into the Bermuda Triangle of San Diego and should count myself fortunate I only lost a single hour of my life, or perhaps I was a victim of an alien abduction, though I don’t see any unexplainable scars or punctures upon my person and my butt doesn’t feel sore in any way. Mostly like just confusion on times which is highly possible considering all the alcohol involved. Still it gave me pause for a moment as I pondered the incongruity of the events.

Oh, I do have a few pictures from the night though a lack of battery life prevented me from having more. I’ll probably be added those to the imagery page tomorrow along with pictures from Thuy’s birthday, House of Blues and Halloween in the Castro.